Why SIP Trunking is an Essential Innovation Your Business Can’t Do Without

When researching VOIP telephony, or the general topic of unified communications, you will come across a protocol known as ‘SIP’. SIP stands for session initiation protocol, and it’s responsible for starting and finishing calls on your unified communications system.

In 1996, SIP was invented as a way to bring multiple users into conference calls. It took three more years for it to be standardised, and several more years for internet connection speeds to catch up with its immense potential.

SIP has more in common with telephone systems than it does to the internet, because it essentially mimics the way traditional phone systems work. While SIP doesn’t actually transmit the voice, video or other data, it’s the critical component in enabling calls to connect and terminate. SIP allows a call to be placed using a simple address - almost like an email address - that specifies the username, password, host and port for the call you want to place.

In unified communications, SIP is critical, because it can initiate and close every type of call you are likely to want (including voice, video and multimedia calls, such as white board sessions). SIP is versatile enough to handle these different types of calls without any management on the client side.

For a long time, business phone systems were reliant on different protocols that we’re quickly moving away from. These older calling protocols and carriers lacked the elegance, simplicity and functionality that SIP offers. The key is the method of transmission; with SIP, your business can use the internet for every type of communication you need, which gives you more possibilities, better productivity and lower charges across the board.

Enter SIP Trunking

If you’re still using services like PSTN and IDSN for communications, there are plenty of reasons to move to SIP. In fact, SIP trunking will eventually replace your old technologies; we’re moving towards a point where SIP trunking will overtake both.

A SIP trunk is a carrier service that handles your voice, video and media calls. SIP trunking is typically used to link two office locations, or to link your unified communications system to a telephone exchange. It’s essentially the modern equivalent of a telephone line, except that it’s provisioned virtually, rather than physically.

Your telephone numbers can be associated with a SIP trunk, and the calls delivered over IP.

Why SIP Trunks Are Taking Over

SIP trunking gives you flexibility and scalability that legacy phone systems can’t compete with. It offers similar benefits to cloud computing; the ability to scale quickly without over-purchasing. Each trunk can handle multiple calls, and you can add or remove trunks when you need to. The cost per month is lower than the cost of a physical line.

SIP trunking also allows you to use one trunk for different tasks, so there’s no need to dedicate trunks to particular jobs when they’re provisioned.

The only consideration you need to make is the amount of bandwidth required, since SIP needs the internet to function, and you need to have the capacity available all the time.

But on the plus side, your SIP trunk isn’t physical, so it can follow you to different locations. That’s great for any business that has to move office, or redirect calls in an emergency.

Is There Room For PSTN?

Despite the clear benefits of SIP trunking, many businesses are still stuck with the old ways of working. They’re buying more capacity than they need, and wasting resource when capacity is dedicated to one task and can’t be repurposed.

Of course, PTSN isn’t obsolete just yet. But the beauty of SIP is that it can integrate with PTSN, so to your customers, nothing has changed. In fact, customers see better service once SIP trunking is in place, because your business can cope with peak demand more elegantly.

It’s critical to choose the right provider that can secure and provision SIP trunks effectively, since any communication method that uses the internet is potentially at risk. But most reputable providers will give you a business SLA and a guarantee of security, so this is simply a case of choosing a name you can trust.

Upgrading to SIP Trunking

We think it’s time all businesses recognised that SIP trunking is the way forward when it comes to business telecommunications. The shift from physical to virtual carriers offers too many benefits to ignore.

If you’d like to discuss what SIP trunking is, and discover the benefits for your business, Wavenet is here to explain the technology and implement it in your organisation. If your business requires a modern, flexible and cost-effective communications infrastructure, SIP trunking is the best and most beneficial choice.

Why Wavenet?

A true ISDN replacement, SIP Trunking future-proofs communication allowing businesses to get the most from their technology.

Having high call capacity of up to 100 calls per second means you can run efficiently and cost-effectively, enabling your business to be brilliant.

By looking at emerging tech, we secure internet connectivity for today and tomorrow. Businesses achieve more with innovative technology that’ll never let them down.